Although for a mercenary, driving for a street vendor boss to deliver goods is a bit too ordinary.
But 50 Euros is actually quite decent for this job.
Unlike other jobs like finding family photos or fixing sewers, which are also 50 Euros, but the work locations are outside the player’s main activity area, making them much more dangerous.
However, for Li De, this is no big deal; forget small trucks, he used to drive planes regularly.
The one who posted the job, Old Zhang, was actually the boss of the snack shop under the skyscraper; he’s Chinese, and Lin Miao used to frequent his store.
"I didn’t expect anyone would actually take up this job."
The middle-aged man with graying hair looked at Li De with surprise; is this burly guy, who looks like he could punch a Tiger Claw death, really driving for him for 50 Euros?
When he first saw Li De, he got quite a scare, carrying a shotgun, anyone who didn’t know would think he was here to rob; it was only after Li De explained himself that the boss didn’t ditch the car and run for life.
"It’s just that Charn is sick, otherwise I wouldn’t bother you busy people."
Horns Zhang kept on complaining while sitting in the passenger seat.
"Recently, synth meat prices surged by 5 Euros, those damned synth factories claim it’s due to rising raw material costs, all bullshit, just because our street business got slightly better, they want to raise prices."
His grumbling made Li De a bit impatient, so he turned on the car radio, not knowing which channel it landed on, the fluent Chinese made Li De rather uncomfortable, but it just so happened to drown out Zhang’s voice, so be it.
"Welcome to the first episode of Prelive Radio Station, I’m your favorite host, Doni Vormirian!"
"Today, we’ve invited a special guest player, the Emperor Xiaochuan from Zigong, Sichuan, to share some inside information."
The first few words were fine, but when the guest’s name was mentioned, the two in the car fell silent. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelꞁire.net
Li De thought it was a translation pack mistake, but the radio repeated it.
"So now let’s have Emperor Xiaochuan tell us his new discoveries..."
"Vormirian’s nemesis Marseille, here is the notorious Emperor Xiaochuan’s royal broadcast; if you have any opinions about me, feel free to curse my whole family line anytime, anywhere."
After AI processing, this player’s voice couldn’t be said to be identical to a certain dead person, but it could be said to be indistinguishable.
Doni: "I heard players report that the chaotic Night City’s current state is entirely your doing, I wonder if Mr. Sun has any defense."
Emperor Xiaochuan: "No, absolutely not, it’s all me. Back then, when I helped the old lady cross the street and saw that building blocking the way, I directed Johnny Silverhand to nuke Arasaka Tower."
"And you know what? After bombing the tower, I felt a bit guilty, because I heard Huang Ban Sanlang was over a hundred years old; if he died, what if he turned into a ghost and came after me at night? So I hid in the bathroom reading his autobiography, titled ’Huang Ban Sanlang’s Narrative,’ have you heard of it?"
Doni: "Err... I’ve heard of it but haven’t read it much, who writes autobiographies seriously?"
Emperor Xiaochuan: "Haven’t read it rightly so, everything written is pure bullshit, halfway through I couldn’t hold it anymore, you know?"
"That suicide, seppuku, you know? When Japan surrendered in WWII, Huang Ban Sanlang’s autobiography said he committed suicide in the courtyard."
Doni: "Know, know, August 15, 1945, it’s a day that’s unforgettable for both America and Japan."
"Right, the end of August, that idiot Huang Ban Sanlang said when he was committing seppuku, he saw cherry blossoms falling, claiming it was heaven’s call, then he didn’t kill himself? In my opinion, if you want to die, do it quickly, don’t waste everyone’s time; if I were there, I’d certainly go up and give one more kick to send him off early, save the trouble for others."
Doni: "As expected from Emperor Xiaochuan, he speaks directly; I think Japan could establish an official executioner profession to prevent any slip-through."
Emperor Xiaochuan: "I don’t know about direct or not direct, I just know there’s a damned cherry blossom in August or September."
"Let me share a fun fact, cherry blossoms bloom in April and fall by May, so he seeing cherry blossoms in August is pure nonsense, but of course, we can’t rule out Huang Ban Sanlang getting senile when writing his autobiography, forgetting what the suicide scene looked like."
Doni: "Ahem, can’t say that, maybe Japan invented projection cherry blossoms, or the seppuku location was in a greenhouse, who knows."
Emperor Xiaochuan: "But I think this idiot might have pulled out the short sword in his belly when scared of the pain, lacking an executioner, before pretending nothing happened."
"Waited until he achieved fame, then took the matter out as bragging material, beautifying it a bit, saying he saw cherry blossoms fall before dying, pure nonsense beautification straight from the restroom..."
Unable to listen anymore, Horns Zhang hurriedly turned off the radio, his hand trembled while pressing the button.
He looked horrified at his accomplice beside him: "Won’t those Huang Ban special forces come looking for us? I don’t want to die..."
The burly Black man who scared him earlier became Zhang’s sole lifeline.
Oh my god, what kind of stuff is this radio broadcasting!
Just these four characters could smash through Night City, Zhang had seen Huang Ban’s aircraft carrier sail into Night City, scaring even New America away.
While Li De’s face was stern and serious, only the twitching corners of his mouth betrayed his current pleasure.
Even he didn’t expect there was such a audacious radio station in Night City, directly using foul language to bombard Huang Ban Sanlang himself.
The last person who defamed Huang Ban Hua Zi, writing fanfics about her, evaporated into thin air.
Even among Night City’s numerous underground radio stations, none dared speak of Huang Ban Sanlang, not even under the guise of the Military Science propaganda department.
But the sharp tongue of the opposition nearly tore off Huang Ban Sanlang’s old face to wipe their ass, particularly as self-proclaimed Emperor, occasionally using some Japanese, it was hard to say it wasn’t insulting Huang Ban Sanlang’s character.
If it were before, he would definitely treat this matter as a joke to share with Alex and Renfield.
He comforted, "The special forces usually go after the radio stations in such cases; no one would come after a listener, but remember not to tune to this channel again."
Li De, however, remembered the radio channel.
Such things are to be savored in small doses.
Yet the radio host and related back-end personnel probably wouldn’t live for another two hours, a pity.
And for the content of this broadcast, for Huang Ban special forces with hands everywhere, Xiaochuan Emperor’s four words hadn’t been out for five minutes before landing on the desk of Special Operations Minister Albertson.
They wanted to cut off the broadcast, but the Operations Department still couldn’t find the radio’s source.
With an expressionless face, this woman listened to every word spoken by Emperor Xiaochuan and Doni Vormirian until the broadcast ended and started to replay; only then did she slap the desk and furiously said:
"This is absolutely lawless! How dare they spread these slanders against Mr. Sanlang in Night City, I’ll apologize to Mr. Sanlang with the blood of these two!"
"This is certainly Military Science’s doing, investigate!"
"And are our Intelligence Department people all useless? How come they haven’t found the radio signal source yet?"
No matter what, just throw the blame on Military Science and be done with it.
"Also, summon the US ambassador to Night City, I want him to apologize kneeling under this great Japanese flag!"